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1840
- European population of Banks Peninsula approximately 80, mostly at whaling stations.
- February 15
- Chiefs Tairoa, Tuhawaiki and Karetai
sell the South Island
to John Jones and W. C. Wentworth for 500. - April 12
- Sarah and Elizabeth lands Herriot, McGillivray, Ellis, Shaw (and wife) and McKinnon (with his wife and child) who try to establish a farm at Riccarton. They are the first European settlers on the plains. (see 1841)
- May 28
- Major Bunbury on HMS Herald visits Akaroa collecting signatures of Māori chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi.
- August 9
- Captain Langlois in the Compte de Paris arrives in Pigeon Bay with 63 French settlers.
- August 10
- Captain Owen Stanley in HMS Britomart dashes to Akaroa and raises the British flag to proclaim sovereignty over the South Island.
- August 19
- French settlers land at Akaroa.
